Iranian Gunboat Attacks Tanker

October 15, 1987|By Tom Masland, Chicago Tribune.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — An Iranian gunboat shot up a tanker headed for Kuwait early Wednesday off the coast of this Persian Gulf port, the second such attack in three days, shipping sources reported.

Iraq said its warplanes hit a ``large naval target`` near Iran`s Kharg Island oil terminal, but there was no independent confirmation.

In Baghdad, thousands of mourners, clamoring for revenge, took part in the funeral of some of the 30 children killed when an Iranian missile hit an elementary school.

The funeral procession marched past the ruins of the Martyrs Place primary school, devastated by the missile as children were gathering for classes Tuesday morning. Iraq said the number of deaths had risen to 36, including 6 adults, and 218 people were wounded.

The cortege, led by senior government officials, snaked through Baghdad for five hours before ending with a mass burial, news agencies reported. Friends of the slain children walked behind trucks that carried the flag-draped coffins.

Weeping youngsters held aloft their dead friends` bloodstained books and bags as they marched behind an army band playing somber music.

Tens of thousands of wailing people lined the streets, chanting

``Revenge! Revenge for Iraq`s children!``

In the latest tanker attack, the Iranian gunboat fired on the 84,631-ton, Liberian-registered Atlantic Peace at 12:55 a.m. Wednesday about 10 miles from Dubai, in the southern gulf. The ship was headed empty to Kuwait when it was attacked. There were no injuries reported and the ship continued under its own power.

Shipping sources at first reported a patrol boat had fired at it with machine guns, but Lloyd`s of London shipping insurance brokers later indicated a larger ship had taken part in the attack, hitting the ship with cannon shells as well as machine-gun fire.

Another tanker, the Saudi Arabian Petroship B, was hit by machine-gun fire about 3,000 feet from the spot Monday.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said Iran may have obtained a small number of American-made Stinger antiaircraft missiles by taking them from a U.S.-backed group of Afghan guerrillas earlier this year.

Weinberger told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday that it appeared members of Iran`s Revolutionary Guard might have seized some of the potent missiles after a truck convoy broke down near the Iran-Afghanistan border.

The convoy was attempting to deliver some of the missiles to one faction of the Mujahedeen resistance fighting to oust Soviet troops from Afghanistan, Associated Press quoted the Journal report as saying.

The Journal quoted Weinberger as saying there was no evidence the Mujahedeen had sold any Stingers to Iran.